Huge sixth inning for Indians, defeat Essig

The Sleepy Eye Indians ended their regular season on July 21 with a 7-1 win over the Essig Bluejays after a huge sixth inning.

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By Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

The Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch

By Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 11:35 AM

By Chris Flores/Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 11:35 AM

Sleepy Eye, Minn.

The Sleepy Eye Indians ended their regular season on July 21 with a 7-1 win over the Essig Bluejays after a huge sixth inning.

Sleepy Eye had the bases loaded in the first inning after a few hits, but could not manage to bring any in. Both teams played great defense for most of the game, as zeros were marked across the board up until the sixth inning.

Alan Woitas started the sixth inning by hitting a double, which started a chain reaction of other big hits from the Indians, including a double by Joey Walter and another by Kelly Krzmarzick.

“Sometimes a big hit like that will spark runs for the rest of the team and that’s kind of what happened I guess,” Woitas said.

The three doubles hit in the sixth inning resulted in six runs scored for Sleepy Eye.

The Indians added to their healthy lead after they scored a final run in the bottom of seventh, while the Bluejays scored their first run of the game in the eighth inning.

Jake Bohnen led Sleepy Eye at bat, going 3-for-3 with one run scored. Joey Walter had three RBI, while Andrew Woitas went 1-for-3 and had two runs. Alan Woitas also went 1-for-3 and had one run and two RBI. Andrew Woitas threw for five innings and allowed three hits and threw one strikeout. Alan Woitas threw for the last four innings and allowed five hits and one run, but threw three strikeouts.

Sleepy Eye ends its regular season with a 12-10 record. The Indians have won five of their past six games, and will look to add to their three game winning streak on July 26, where they will host Searles in the first playoff game.

“I think we’ve been playing a lot better baseball as of late,” Coach Bruce Woitas said. “I think we’re starting to hit the ball, get some key hits, pitching well, and playing good defense for the most part, so it’s a good way to be going in at the end of the year.”

So what’s the key to a successful post season? Alan Woitas said the team needs to do a better job of not leaving so many players on base.

“That’s kind of been our struggle this year is we’ve had runners on base and haven’t been able to drive them in,” Alan Woitas said. “So if we can start doing that in playoff time we’ll be okay.”